Your tomato list makes me smile Jay :-D

Is "Goliath" the same as the "Goliath Griller" I got from the swap? If so, do you think it would do okay in a large pot? I'm still working on where I'm going to put all of my plants.

Mandy

Mandy,
Both Goliaths are part of the Goliath series that Totally Tomatoes offers. The two I mentioned are tomatoes that has done well for me. The Goliath Griller is a pepper I've grown before. It is a nice one. My advice on containers is the bigger the better. All my experience with containers has been with tomatoes. The peppers should do ok in one as long as it is big enough. And without any experience growing them in containers it is hard for me to say how big they would need to be. Jay

Funny you're mentioning Totally Tomatoes...I just sat down with their catalog to see what other tomatoes I can't live without, and to compare against other Okies experience with them. LOL!

We have grown peppers in containers and they have done well. Be sure they get enough water, but not too much. Also, ours did better with some afternoon shade.

Shelly

Oh my goodness I can picture myself thinking I was planting a tomato and getting a pepper LOL. Where did my brain run off too? Anyone seen it? :-D

Much of my garden gets afternoon shade so I'm good there...now I've got to see if I can find a good sized container. Hmmm....this may just be the excuse I need to head down to Atwoods. Hee Hee!

Very impressive, Jay. I hope to be able to grow these varieties; Brandy Boy, Jet Star, Celebrity, Black Krim, Mortgage Lifter, Black Cherry, Better Boy, Sophies Choice and a few others. I am so ready for Spring. James

Jay, Nice selection as always! I look forward to hearing your reports throughout the growing season.

My list is just a rough draft, but they're about 60% to 70% seeded in flats, so the final list should not differ much....unless I add more varieties.

Here's my list (varieties that are new to me are marked with an *):

Cherry/Grape/Currant/Pear-shaped Bite-sized for fresh eating, snacking in the garden and dehydrating:

Black Cherry
Black Plum
*Cuban Yellow Grape
*Fargo
Ildi
Juliet
*Golden Sweet
Riesentraube
Sprite
Suncherry FT
*Sungold Select II
Sungold
Sweet Million
*Sweet Treats
Tess's Land Race Currant
Yellow Jelly Bean

Paste-types for Canning, Cooking, Freezing, Salsa (some of these are great for fresh eating too):

*Baker Family Heirloom
*Glick's 18 Mennonite
Heidi
*Heinz 1439
*Paquebot Roma
Rutgers
Rutgers Select
*Santa Clara Canner

OPs, including Beefsteaks, for Slicing/Fresh Eating (these also can be used for processing too):

Aunt Ruby's German Green
*Berkeley Tie-Dye
Black Brandywine
Black Krim
Cherokee Purple
*Dana's Dusky Rose
Dixie Golden Giant
*Dora
Dr. Wyche's Yellow
*Gary O Sena
*Golden Cherokee
*Goose Creek
Indian Stripe
*JD's Special C-Tex
*KBX
*Martin's Amish Mennonite
Mortgage Lifter
Mountain Princess
*Mr. Bruno
Nebraska Wedding
Pink Climber
Tennessee Britches
Tennessee Heirloom
*Texas Star
Valena Pink
*Vintage Striped Wine

Hybrids for Fresh Eating (can also be used for processing):

Brandy Boy
*Brandymaster Red
*Brandymaster Yellow
*Fabulous
Jet Star
*JTO-99199
Moreton
Mountain Fresh Plus
Mountain Glory
Mountain Pride
*Pink Brandymaster
Prime Time
Red Defender
Ramapo
Scarlet Red
Supersonic

Specifically for smaller containers:

Canary Yellow
Pixie Orange
Red Robin
*Tumbler
*Tumbling Tom Red
*Tumbling Tom Yellow
Window Box Roma

The plants in the last category all are intended for smallish containers (4 gallons or smaller), including hanging baskets.

The other plants in the other categories all go into the ground or into large containers ranging in size from 5 gallons to about 20 gallons.

You might have noticed there really aren't any early tomatoes on the list and that is because I always buy some nice starter plants in 6" pots in mid-February for earliest possible ripe tomatoes...usually ripe by the end of April. Since I'll have those, I'm not starting any earlies from seed this year.

Dawn

I'm almost embarrassed to put mine up here, but here goes nothing!

Small size for snacking:

Hawaiian Red Currant
Tiny Tiger
Coyote Cherry

Paste Tomatoes:

Opalka
Cream Sausage
San Marzano

Slicers:

Green Moldavian
Cherokee Purple
German Pink
Brandywine
Big Rainbow
Costoluto Fiorentino
Amazon Chocolate

Too big for bite-size, too small for slicing:

Banjan Roomii
Green Zebra

I am also planning on getting Jaune Flamme (Love it!) and some hybrids. I also save some room for impulse buys at Lisa Merrill's!

Shelly

Okay, I THINK I've finally decided on this year's tomato grow list. This is, of course, subject to last-minute bouts of insanity.

Cherries:

1. Black Cherry
2. Chocolate Cherry
3. Peacevine Cherry
4. Sun Cherry
5. Sungold

Pastes:

1. Banana Legs
2. Paquebot Roma
3. Speckled Roman
4. Ten Fingers of Naples

"Normal":

1. Arkansas Traveler
2. Black Brandywine
3. Black from Tula
4. Black Krim
5. Brandy Boy
6. Carbon
7. Cherokee Purple
8. Estler's Mortgage Lifter
9. Eva Purple Ball
10. Japanese Trifele Black
11. Jet Star
12. Marglobe
13. Mirabell
14. Neves Azorean Red
15. Porter
16. Porter Improved
17. Pruden's Purple
18. Rutgers
19. Rutger's Select
20. Sheyenne
21. Sioux
22. Taxi
23. Hawaiian Pineapple

I so want to grow more but, with a toddler and not knowing how many beds will be completed by planting time, I have to try to be reasonable.

I'm growing Rutgers & Rutger's Select and Porter & Porter Improved next to each other so I can compare.

Pruden's Purple/Prudence Purple: I grew one of these for a few years and it was the best tasting tomato EVER and produced very well. Then I lost my seed and bought or traded for more but it wasn't the same at all. This year's batch of seed is from Pinetree and I sure hope it's the same strain as my original batch!

Oh, boy, I almost forgot to add Hawaiian Pineapple so just tacked it onto the end of the list. It's one of hubby's favorites so I'd be in trouble if I forgot. Whew.

As you can see, I have a certain fondness for black & purple tomatoes. They have (usually) done very well for me through our heat and lack of water other than what Mother Nature sees fit to provide. Taxi & Banana Legs have always been huge producers for me as well but aren't terribly flavorful so they're mixed with others for bulk & backup.

#11, 12, and 13 may not make the final cut. I'm wavering on them...

Diane

Anyone care to bet on how much all these rough draft lists change by the time we actually get all the plants in the ground?

Shelley, You have a nice list of varieties, and certainly nothing to feel embarassed about. Some of us just have a really-out-of-control tomato addiction.

I always leave room (in my mind, if not actually in the soil) for a few impulse buys too. I always have a stack of 10-gallon grow bags in the garage that I can use when I run out of space in the ground and the 'real' containers.

Diane, A lot of the 'new to me' tomatoes that I'm trying this year would fall in the black-purplish-pinkish category too as those are our favorite types, and also some of our best performers.

One reason I may add to the list is that I keep going to the Gleckler Seedmen website and drooling over their tomatoes. For anyone not familiar with Gleckler, they are one of the oldest seedhouses in the USA but were defunct for a while and now are back again (and still in the hands of the Gleckler family.)

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Betcha Can Find Something Here You'll Want

My tomato list:

Tess's Land Race
Sweetie
Riesentraube
Amish Paste
Roma
Cour di Bue
Cherokee Purple

Just a few varieties--but I'm okay with that for now :-D

At the end of the season I hope you rate all of these. Keep notes please. You guys like the blacks and other colors.

Okay, I've nixed the JetStar, Mirabell (which was supposed to be in the cherry section, oops), and Marglobe. Have added in Hungarian Italian to my paste group.

I won't make any further changes.

No, really.

Okay, maybe. But only to make everyone else feel better about their own last-minute changes.

Diane

I started seeds today.

Sioux
Red Brandywine
Box Car Willie
Germaid Red
Bloody Butcher
Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red
Crnokovich Yugoslovian
Prue
Aker's West Va
German Red Strawberry
Neve's Azorean Red
Kotlas
Ace 55
Early Wonder

1884
Royal Hillbilly
Brandywine Sudduth
Arkansas Traveler
Eva Purple Ball
Pruden's Purple
Mortgage Lifter
Aunt Ginny's Purple
Pink Lemon

Black Pineapple
Black Krim
Carbon
Paul Robeson
Cherokee Chocolate
Cherokee Purple
Black from Tula
Japanes Black Trifeled
JD's Special T- Tex
Black Seaman

Yellow 1884 Pinkheart
Yellow Brandywine
Sojourner
Aunt Gerties Gold
Kellogs Breakfast
Persimmon
Dr. Wyches Yellow
Gold Medal
Moonglow
Hillbilly

Cherokee Green
Charlie's Green
Aunt Rubies German Green
Evergreen
Grub's Mystery Green

Black Cherry
Sungold
Green Doctors

Mandy - Gee, I must have goofed up if I sent you Goliath Pepper and I could have kept it for myself. LOL I am almost as bad about peppers as I am tomatoes.

Hi, i can't but be impressed with the list of tomato's. I have not heard of many of these as I am new to gardening. I would appreciate some input. I live in OKC and will be using the Square Foot Gardening Method and want to grow at least 8 or more tomato plants for this summer. Please any suggestions would be appreciated. We like cherry and slicing tomato's, as we are not going to can anything this year. We have a large open lot (1 acre)and will only grow lettuce, carrots, spinach, melons, watermelons, herbs, broccoli and squash for this year. Any help would be appreciated.

I am interested in how many seeds of each one you are planting.

Dawn and Jay and others, How many total tomato seeds?

I have planted zero and will probably not start anything until around the 20th.

Tank,
Nice list. Many I've either grown or will be growing this year. Where do you live? Will be interested in your results. Jay

Hi Carol,

How many seeds I start varies greatly depending on how many plants of each type I intend to put in the ground, how many I'm growing for friends, relatives or neighbors, how many of a given variety I hope to be able to take to the Spring Fling in OKC in April, etc. Usually I start at least 6 seeds of each variety, figuring at least 5 will sprout.

For plants like the paste/plum/processing types from which I hope to pick oodles of tomatoes for canning, cooking, making fresh salsa, freezing, etc., I might start a dozen of each of those varieties and cram as many of them into the ground or containers as I can. You know how I am about canning, dehydrating and freezing tomatoes.....

For tomatoes that are new to me, I try to plant at least one of each variety in the ground and one of each in a container so I can compare their growth and production in each.

I'm planning on growing a lot in containers because I am expecting a long, cool, wet spring and our ground here is so wet already that it likely won't dry out for many weeks yet. In a wet year, I like to have extras for backup in case heavy rains start drowning everything (last year is a great example of that).

I start all the seeds for each variety in one cell of a 72-cell starter flat, so one cell might sprout six tomatoes and another cell might sprout 12 or more. I get a good plant count once I prick out the small seedlings and pot them up to individual paper cups after they have a couple of true leaves. Using this method allows me to start a huge number of seeds in a very small space.

Hi Bensdad,

There are some tomato maniacs here who grow many of the less well-known tomato varieties for various reasons, mainly because each one has its own flavor in the same way that each wine vintage is unique. I am one of those tomato maniacs, but I'm certainly not the only one.

Do you intend to raise your own tomato transplants from seed? Or, will you be purchasing your plants at a retail store? The tomatoes I would recommend would be different depending on whether you're growing your own transplants or buying them.

If you are buying the transplants, your choices will be limited to whatever your local stores carry or what you can find at the Farmer's Market there in OKC (some vendors at the market offer a good selection of tomato transplants in the spring). If you are raising your own transplants from seed, the sky is the limit. A lot of us grow open-pollinated types that are heirloom tomatoes, some of which date back to at least the late 1800s and some of which are newer selections or crosses/sports of other open-pollinated varieties.

If I was growing 8 tomato plants this year and was limited to what I could find in a store, I'd look for the following transplants once tomato transplants start arriving in stors. I'd think most of them would be easy to find, though perhaps not all of them.

CHERRY TYPES:
Sungold
Black Cherry
Rose Quartz
Sweet Million (Sweet 100 or Supersweet 100 both are easier to find, but we like Sweet Million better)
Grape

SLICERS:
Black Krim
Cherokee Purple
Jetstar
Supersonic
Goliath
Better Boy
Celebrity (not the best flavor in comparison to some of the others, but very disease-resistant and a heavy producer)
Porterhouse
Jubilee
Sioux
Lemon Boy

If I was raising transplants from seed this year and I wanted plants that would give me the best combination of heavy production/great flavor/disease resistance, I'd plant these:

CHERRY/GRAPE TYPES:
Black Cherry
Sungold
Riesentraube
Rose Quartz
Sweet Million or Sweet 100
Ildi

SLICERS:
Black Krim or Cherokee Purple OR Indian Stripe for a dark maroon type (known as black or purple tomatoes)
Brandy Boy or Royal Hillbilly for a pinkish-purple
Nebraska Wedding OR Kellogg's Breakfast of Jaune flammee for an orange type
Dr. Wyche's Yellow or Aunt Gertie's Gold or Lemon Boy for a yellow type
Eva Purple Ball or Pruden's Purple for outstanding slicer
Cuostralee or Break O'Day or Rutgers for a red tomato
Aunt Ruby's German Green or Cherokee Green or Green Giant for a green-when-ripe type

If I lived in OKC and I wanted to raise open-pollinated tomatoes and didn't want to set up indoor lights and grow my own, I'd watch for Sunrise Acres at the Farmer's Market. They always have dozens of open-pollinated varieties. Another option would be to plan a day trip to the Tulsa area to visit The Tomatoman's Daughter when she opens her seasonal business to sell heirloom tomato plants (and some other seedlings too). I'll link her website below. Lisa Merrell owns/operates The Tomatoman's Daughter and her dad, Darrell Merrell (now deceased) was The Tomatoman who introduced many, many Oklahomans (and others) to open-pollinated, heirloom tomatoes.

When all is said and done, they are many, many excellent varieties and I'm sure you'll get lots of recommendations from folks here. The truth is that any tomato you raise in a home garden will have unbelieveably great flavor and texture compared to what you buy at a grocery store.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: The Tomatoman's Daughter Website

Thank you for all your suggestions okiedawn. I looked at the link and am really exited now to grow more than 8 plants. I also downloaded the list and tips from the site. My kids (3 and 6) really want to go back to the Aquarium to see the sharks again, so I think a nice trip to Tulsa will be in our future. They are also very excited about growing a vegetable and flower garden this year. There is a lot of information on this site that I still have to read and see what I can do as a beginner without getting in over my head. Thank you again.

Bensdad,

The Tomato stand isn't far from the Aquarium at all! My kids love going there, but I do have to limit them to 2-3 varieties each! We usually agree on a few favorites, and then they can pick tomatoes, peppers, or whatever for themselves. I've found that if the kids help pick out and grow the veggies, they are much more likely to eat them. Our friends are shocked at how involved my boys are in the veggie and herb garden planning. They really enjoy it!

Shelly

Dawn is an Enabler!!!! LOL. I envy those of you close enough to go visit Lisa's stand. Of course if I make the swap I'll probably be taking a person up on their offer to pick up a few plants for me. LOL. Jay

Bensdad, You're welcome. If I lived in northeastern OK, I'd probably make up reasons to go to The Tomatoman's Daughter every week and pick up "just a couple more" tomato plants.

Shelly, That's the way to do it....start them young. So many of my earliest memories are gardening ones....riding on the old Ford tractor with my grandfather or uncle....sitting on the porch steps every evening shelling black-eyed peas....picking tomatoes and peppers and other great stuff....carrying brown paper grocery bags of tomatoes to church to give to friends. Back then, during the summertime, any telephone conversation between my mom and my grandmother or aunts always contained phrases like "I picked a mess of beans today" or whatever. I think that kids who grow up growing something....anything, whether it is fruits or veggies or herbs or flowers....well, they are the luckiest kids on earth.

Jay, "Hello, my name is Dawn and I am a Tomato Enabler" (and I am proud of it). LOL

When I was in college, my dad had one of the best tomato years ever...he harvested hundreds of big, round, red tomatoes. We ate them, canned them, and gave them away to everyone we knew. My then-boyfriend was teasing me about those tomatoes one day and said he was surprised my family didn't bake tomato cakes. I still think about that remark and smile smugly to myself every time I make a tomato cake. (I didn't have a recipe for one then, but I do now!)

Dawn

Jay, I'm in the Tulsa area, but I'm primarily growing them in 15 gallon containers. Last year's winners were Cherokee Green, Mortgage Lifter, Arkansas Traveler and Black Krim. I've got a couple dozen on my list that are first year trials. Of those new ones, I'm looking forward mostly to Prue, NAR and Green Doctors. I'll give some feedback on how it works out. Of yours, I'm really interested in how ARGG Cherry does. I debated between it and Green Doctors.

Jay, If you need me to go by Lisa's on my way to the Spring Fling, I can do that. I will come within a few miles of her place, so I could run down there. At least I hope I will be there. This part of the census that I am doing should probably be finished by that time and I don't know if I will be doing another part or not. It will probably depend on how smoothly this one goes and how good my crew is.

Tank,
ARGGC is one of the new ones I'm looking forward too. I look forward to all the new ones but some more than others. Big Cheef, Baker's Family Heirloom, Dana's Dusky Rose, Apfelsin, Yellow 1884 Pinkheart and Sallisaw Cafe' are the ones I'm real excited about. And like I said there will be a few changes made before all the planting is done. NAR is a good one. One that every year I wonder why I left off the list. But that goes for several others. Every year I say I'm not going to grow as many new ones but end up doing it again.

I got the ARRGC along with the Big Cheef seeds and some more over at a chat site I go to sometimes. There are several guru's over there. Usually if they recommend something it is good if it will grow here. So if it sets well I feel it will be a good one. Jay

ELKWC I just wanted to point out that Yellow 1884 Pinkheart is not really a "Heart" Tomato It just sometimes has a pink center. It can vary from year to year on the amount of pink. Mine didn't have hardly any pink last year, but this year it may be very pink.....It is usually very productive and very low acid. So low acid that I have have a hard time saving seed using the fermentation process.

Dawn, Where did you get your Fabulous Seed? I would love to trial two or three of these plants this year but haven't found a seed source.
*********************************************************

I will probably plant out another 100 plus varieties (mostly new to me varieties) this year in the field, but haven't even began to figure out what. I have seed for around 300 varieties and ordering more.. Yes I'm a sick puppy too!

I planted my seed for plant sales for this year yesterday and planted enough for 4 -5 thousand plants. I will plant my hybrids today. Then wait another couple of weeks and do a later planting of everything again. I have more room in the greehouse to grow for myself this year as I won't be growing for Lisa Merrell this year. I have grown the plants (Tomatoes and Herbs) for Darrell Merrell for the past 14 years, but want to concentrate on my own sales this year. I think that Lisa grew about 50% of her own plants last year and she did very good job.

Actually I'm feeling a bit stressed about what to grow as I have always relied on Darrel (Lisa last year) to tell me what he/she wanted me to grow and just went from there. Where as Darrell could sell over 100 flats of Cherokee Purple, I could only sale maybe 4 or 5 flats. The power of promotion is a big thing! I am hoping to get a website up to list my varieties and it will be under DuckCreekFarms.com, if anyone is interested. I will leave my price at $2.50 but Lisa is going to jump to $3.50, but she can get it as Darrell was the best promoter in the business.

Hoping everyone has a great Tomato year this year as last year was certainly a challenge.
gary

Tank and Shelly,

Y'all both have a lot of interesting varieties on your list and I hope you'll give us regular progress reviews during the growing season and, particularly, taste/flavor reviews!!!!

Gary,

I am so glad you went into more details on your growing operation. I've wanted to ask you for a while now if you were selling plants directly to the public, but I know you have to be very careful about mentioning your own business here on GW or you can get into trouble. I've noticed DarJones is very careful about mentioning his tomato sales on the tomato forum because he doesn't want to get on the wrong side of the site administrators. (So, if we ask you questions here about your business that you cannot answer online for fear you'll upset the site administrators and get into trouble, just say you can't answer tbose questions here. I know you have to walk a fine line so you won't be accused of using the forum for free advertising and that must be very hard to do.)

About Fabulous....I got the seed from Park Seed. It was on clearance and I was afraid they might be about to discontinue it so I ordered a packet this spring. I only planted a few seeds and I'd be happy to send you some of the seeds from this packet if you'll e-mail me your snail mail address through "My Page". I just checked the Park website and Fabulous is currently sold out.....so let me know if you want some of my seed.

If you have time, I hope you'll post your Grow List once you've done your seeding and know what you have started for 2010. Tomato mania is a nice illness that we all share!

This week I've been eating about a cup of tomatoes a day. These are cherry, grape and currant types that I dehydrated by the hundreds day after day last year. I put about a half-cup of them into a bowl and add water to rehydrate them. Once they plump up, I sit and eat them straight from the bowl as if they were popcorn or something. I am in tomato heaven! (And it still is such a long time until the first ripe tomato of 2010....)

Happy Growing everybody! At least we can 'talk tomatoes' until the cows come home, and I know we're all praying for more cooperative weather this year than what we had last year.

Dawn

Thanks Dawn. I guess I didn't realize how strict they were here about business. I may have oversteped what I said, but too late now..

thanks
gary

We are trying to grow a lot of new varieties this year and I thought that I had gone overboard with my seed purchases, but I'm feeling much better after reading these lists. :)

We are attempting:
White Currant
Fox Cherry
Tiny Tim
Coyote
Borgo Cellano
Black Cherry
Mexico Midget
Snow White*
Chocolate Cherry*
Green Grape*

Cherokee Purple*
Evergreen*
Lime Green Salad*
Old Ivory Egg*
Black Plum*
Black Zebra*
Green Zebra*
Red Target*
Pink Accordian
Reisetomate
Arkansas Traveler
Black from Tula
Omar's Lebanese
Ananas Noire
German Red Strawberry
Wapsipinicon Peach
Amish Paste
Black Aisburg
Black Russian
Carbon

*pre-ordered plants from the co-op
The rest we are starting from seed, but I thought we should have some back ups since this is our first time starting so many ourselves. Some of them were samples or trades, so I know that they won't all thrive in our weather, but I thought that I would try some of each to see which did the best.

This is the first time that we will be trying to supply all of our tomatoes from our own garden, so I have a question for the more experienced tomato growers. This is my first year canning anything other than jam. I'm not sure how many paste tomato plants I need to put in. I'd like to make spaghetti sauce, salsa and regular canned tomatoes--and also have enough to dry. Do you use paste tomatoes for drying? How many plants do you canners grow? I know it's probably a hard question to answer, since it depends on so many different factors, but I'm just looking for a ball park figure.

I was also wondering if any of you grow indeterminates in containers? I've tried a few times, but I think that they were always too small for the roots. What sizes/kinds of containers do you use? If it works, I would like to start some plants for my grandma to grow on her back patio.

I hope this isn't too much of a thread hijack!!
Oh, and this is my first post, but I've been lurking for a few years. We moved back to Oklahoma in the fall and this forum has been a huge help with our garden plans!

Gary,

Oh, I don't "think" you said enough to get yourself in trouble. I am sure the GW admin can distinguish between an innocent mention of one's livelihood versus blatant advertising. I am not sure how strongly the rule is enforced, but the rule as I understand it is that no commercial advertising is allowed in any of the forums. If you say something about your business that they think comes too close to advertising, I think they send you a "warning" by e-mail.

Anyway, I'm glad you mentioned your operation. How else would someone like me down here in southern OK know you were up there in northern OK? I'm glad to know we have someone else up there (in addition to Lisa) growing heirlooms that we can refer people to when they're searching for plants or for information, answers to the hardest tomato questions, etc.....

Maybe you cannot refer people here to your operation, but the rest of us can.

There's a guy in Texas who sells heirloom tomatoes by mail but ONLY mails them within the state of Texas. (He has a real job and trying to mail them all over the country is too time-consuming for a part-timer.) I've always wished 'somebody' here in Oklahoma had that kind of business because lots of folks here want to try heirlooms and some people don't have the space to start seeds indoors or their job takes them out of town too much, etc.

Finally, what would any of us do if a late freeze (or baseball-sized hail or a tornado or a wildfire) wiped out every plant we had in the ground in, let's say, early May? Would we be forced to grow only hybrids? Well, it wouldn't be the worst thing on earth, but it would be close. No. We'd send out an SOS and find someone in the state of Oklahoma who raises/sells heirlooms and we'd be hoping and praying we could find someone like that. So, you see, we NEEDED to know that you are there.

Laspasturas,

Welcome home to Oklahoma and also welcome to the Oklahoma forum. I'm glad you decided to stop lurking and start 'talking' to us.

I read over your list and think most everything you have on it ought to grow just fine here. If there's one that might not produce well here, it likely would be German Red Strawberry since the heart types don't generally produce well in our endless and brutal summer heat.

I grow indeterminates in containers and, in general, they perform quite well there. The larger the container, the better they perform. I grow indeterminates in containers of all sizes from cat litter buckets that seem slightly smaller than 5-gallon buckets (I've never measured to see how much the buckets hold but guess 4 to 5 gallons) to molasses feed tubs (about the size of a half-whiskey barrel, so I'm guessing 20 gallons or so?).

To grow in containers here in OK, you have to pay careful attention to watering. In our hottest weather, and by that I'd say anything up to about 105 degrees, the containers may need to be watered twice a day. When the temp goes over 105, I drape old bedsheets over my containerize plants to shade them and then water them at meal times: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Luckily, that kind of heat usually only lasts a few days.

Because Oklahoma's heat is so brutal, I try to strategically place my containers where the plants will receive 6 to 8 hours of direct sun and no more than that. I get better production from those plants than from containers placed to that they get sun for 8 to 10 to 12 hours a day. The plants also are happier if they are not lined up alongside a driveway, patio or south or west-facing wall that reflects a lot of heat up onto them. And, light-colored containers reflect heat away from the roots better than dark-colored containers do. AND, I spray-paint my kitty litter buckets a nice shade of green or blue (using Krylon Fusion paint designed specifically for plastics) so I don't look too much like a redneck gardener (not that there's anything wrong with being a redneck gardener).

I don't think that your questions about how many tomatoes to grow for canning or dehydrating is a hijacking of the thread at all, but I am worried that people with a similar question in the future wouldn't find this thread if they do a GW search because the search feature here is a little squirrelly (with no dispect to our friends the squirrels). So, if it is OK with you, I'll start a separate thread about growing tomatoes for canning and drying and such in the hope that by putting the words canning and drying in the title, it will ensure future searches find that thread.

I'll get busy on that thread after dinner.

Dawn

Gary,
My source and at Tatiana's it lists shape as both oblate and heart. I will try to look back through some information. But sure my source said their plants grew both shapes. Makes me wonder if their seed is true. And if you go to Tatiana's you will see it says both oblate and heart listed by shape. I went to Lisa's site and see she says Oblate. Being I only have seed from the one source guess I will grow a couple and see what they produce. What kind of production did you get from them? Lisa says prolific if I remember right. I have another friend who I know grew it out last summer. I will check again with them. It seems they said they had both shapes also. Again I've slept a few times since then so could be dreaming. LOL. Thanks for letting me know what it should be. I was expecting a possibility of both shapes.
Have you grown Randy's Brandy, Grandma Suzy's Beefsteak and County Agent. Three of Lisa's I would like to try. Haven't been able to get seed so may have someone pick me up plants and bring them to the plant swap. If you have grown them what is your impression of each?

Elkwc....1884 yellow pinkheart was one of my most prolific last year,but didn't get very large. Randy's Brandy is another prolific one that I highly recommend and tastes like Brandywine Cherry (another must grow in my opinion) from which it was selected. Grandma's Suzy was my best producing tomato in 2008. I try to grow enough tomatoes to get enough seed for two or three years production for plant sales so didn't plant Grandma Suzy's last year. And I still have enough seed to carry me through for a few years so probably won't plant is again for awhile... I planted County Agent last year, but it was one of the last varieties to get planted out and didn't do very well. I plan to try it again this year.

Laspasturas, I agree with Dawn about the German Red Strawberry. I planted around 25 plants one year and didn't get one fruit.

Gary thanks for the info. I may be twisting your arm to do some trading sometime. I'm wanting to try more varieties that have done well closer to my area. I've found those grown on the east coast many times don't like my climate.

I won't be starting anything till at least March 1st and then will study the weather patterns before planting. I've had several asking me when I was going to start. I will be planting my winter sown tomatoes in dry mix over the next week. Ordered trays and they are at the post office so ready to start.
Went to an auction in Garden City today. Tried to find some seed starting and potting mix. Couldn't find what I wanted. Finally bought some Fertilome. Home Depot don't have anything yet. The owner of the nursery I went too said he would have 100 tomato varieties this year. Said when they started in business 50 years ago they carried 3. Rutgers, Glamour and Sioux. Will have to go check out what he is growing later. Also 30 hot pepper and 20 sweet pepper types. Glad to see somewhere offering more of a choice. Jay

Hmm..well I thought that I responded last night, but I guess I didn't get it posted. Thanks so much, Dawn! I am afraid that I may run out of room in the garden for all of the tomatoes that I'd like to grow, so it's nice to know that I can have some back up containers just in case.

Maybe I'll try growing the GRS in containers that can be moved into the shade...or at least plant them where they will be protected during the very hottest part of the day. I think I'll just try one or two plants so they aren't wasting too much space if they don't produce.

Megan,

You're welcome. Sometimes you'll post something and it will disappear. For the last few months, there's been lots of trouble like that here. I don't know why they can't fix it once and for all and keep it fixed, but I assume that when garden gremlins get into the website and cause problems, those problems must be very complex and hard to fix.

Heart/oxheart types like German Red Strawberry don't produce well in heat, period. If anyone here has grown an oxheart/heart type that produces enough tomatoes to make them worth the space they occupy, they've never said so here, and by here I mean zone 7. Maybe some zone 6 gardeners have slightly cooler summer weather or weather that doesn't heat up really hot until later in the year and they might have better production from the heart types.

I don't think I've ever gotten more than 3 tomatoes off a single oxheart type and that was Kosovo, and probably in 2007 which was a wetter and cooler than average year.

Dawn